


Accepting Certain Things

by still_lycoris



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Bittersweet, Extra Treat, Injury Reference, Light Angst, M/M, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29518521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: Josh isn't the same as he used to be but Chris still loves him just the same.
Relationships: Chris Hartley/Josh Washington
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Accepting Certain Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nan/gifts).



> Sorry this is late! I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Chris woke up to find Josh in his room.

He wasn’t scared this time. He was used to Josh’s odd appearances by now. Not like the first time. The first time, he’d screamed so loudly that Josh had smacked him to shut him up and Josh smacking you _now_ was not like anybody else smacking you. Chris had had to explain the black eye and screaming fit by saying he’d had a nightmare, fallen out of bed and hit his eye on something. Which wasn’t unlikely, except maybe the shape of the black eye not matching anything in the room. Nightmares still came thick and fast now, over a year later, back then, it had been worse. Nobody questioned nightmares – except to try to remind you that they weren’t real, which was so untrue in Chris’s case that it was almost funny.

Josh looked kind of like a nightmare now. It seemed cruel to think – people always told you that you shouldn’t judge by looks – but they weren’t thinking about a literal half-human, half-monster. No part of him was quite normal. Too tall, too lanky, skin not quite human looking and one side of his face was twisted and toothy in a way that no human ever could be.

But he was still Josh.

“Hey Chris.” His voice wasn’t quite like it used to be – there was a rasp to it that had never been there before. The first time Chris had mentioned this, Josh had immediately imitated his old voice. It had been spot-on – almost _too_ spot on, as though Josh was offering exactly what Chris might have wanted to hear. He’d never asked Josh to try again. This was Josh’s new voice and it was okay, honestly. Weird but okay.

“Hey Josh. Didn’t we talk about you knocking?”

“Well, I knocked but you didn’t wake up so I climbed in,” Josh said and he sounded cheerful about it. That was like the old Josh. He’d never batted an eyelid at shit like that. Chris rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to chuck a pillow at him. Josh could be surprised by sudden movement. The last pillow Chris had thrown had ended up shredded. That had been early on and Josh had been devastated afterwards. They’d still been tiptoeing around things, trying to pretend Josh hadn’t changed at all, even though it was so clear that he had.

It was easier now. Most of the time.

“I bought you a present,” Josh said. “Because it’s Valentine’s Day. Right?”

He suddenly sounded uncertain. He was looking around the room in jerky movements, either trying to confirm his belief or just because he felt uneasy. Chris got out of bed and Josh’s head snapped to face him immediately. He didn’t need movement to find you – not like _them_ – but movement always got his attention. Chris wasn’t so bothered by that any more. It wasn’t _that_ weird after all.

“It’s Valentine’s Day,” he said and Josh grinned the grin that was half-Josh, half-monster but had all of his old smugness and humour.

“See, that’s what I said! So I bought you a present!”

Chris wasn’t quite sure that this could be good. Josh couldn’t exactly go into a shop. The last time he’d “bought” Chris a present had been Christmas and he’d left a dead wolverine on the end of Chris’s bed like something from a demented Santa Claus. The funny thing was, although Chris had been seriously freaked – and had to get rid of it without his parents noticing – he’d understood the references Josh had been dragging out of his brain. He’d been thinking about Chris getting scared by a wolverine in the lodge. He’d been thinking that he could fix something that had happened there. So he’d killed a wolverine and given it to Chris to make him happy.

Josh was still Josh, that was the thing. Still himself. He remembered things, he knew things. Some of it was tangled up with other things, weird things but he was still Josh. And Chris could get used to anything for Josh.

It wasn’t like he was the same person any more either.

“Well, c’mon! Don’t keep me in suspense!” he said, putting his hands out. “But if it’s not a new fancy phone then I’m chucking it!”

Josh moved a bit closer – slowly, he always tried to be slow and careful around Chris and Chris appreciated it – and pressed something hard into Chris’s hands.

At least it wasn’t soft and bloody. That had to be a good start, right?

Josh had tried to wrap the present in leaves and Chris had to brush them off, letting them fall on the floor. He’d clean them up later. He was getting good at cleaning the place before anybody noticed. Josh sometimes left odd marks, which wasn’t his fault. He lived outside, you couldn’t exactly expect him to be clean all the time. He did his best though. When he’d first arrived, he’d smelt awful but these days, he just smelt kind of musty sometimes. Chris had smelt worse.

He pushed off the last leaf and slowly turned the object in his hand. It was a lump and a first, he thought it might be crystal but then he realised it was glass; sooty glass that had melted and fused together into a strange lump. Something that had been heated a lot – like in a huge explosion that had burned down a lodge.

“I thought you might like it,” Josh said, his voice raspier than ever, like it got sometimes when he was nervous. “Like ... I don’t know. I just thought you might like it.”

Chris carefully put the damaged but reformed glass onto his bedside table, then stepped over the leaves to put his hand on Josh’s arm. Josh’s skin felt a little different these days – or maybe it had always been like that. He’d not touched Josh that much before – or it didn’t feel like it somehow. Maybe he just didn’t remember. Some things you didn’t really notice until they were gone and you wanted them back but it was too late.

“It’s great,” he said, meaning it. “I love it. Thanks, Josh.”

Josh leaned down – he was taller than Chris now, a couple of heads taller, lankier too, not the shape he’d once been but that was okay, Chris was used to that now and people changed, they changed all the time, that was part of growing up, right – and pressed their foreheads together, breathing deeply. He was always careful before kissing Chris. He said that he liked to get used to it. Chris tried not to think too much about what that meant. 

“I didn’t get you anything,” he said quietly, feeling guilty for it, even though Josh didn’t really _need_ things now. He seemed quite happy living semi-wild and secret and not quite human. Which was fair, since he wasn’t.

“Ah, I don’t mind,” Josh said. “You can make it up to me.”

He kissed Chris then, careful at first, then a little harder. Chris kissed him back. At first, whenever they’d kissed, he’d stayed to the more human side of Josh’s mouth but now, he tried to make sure that he didn’t. It was still weird but it was another thing he was getting used to.

It was Josh. That was all that mattered. Josh was here and he wasn’t dead and even if it was weird and different, they were still together. 

Chris was more than content with that.


End file.
